An update for gardening lovers aje ^___^

I know dah a few days jugak I buat updates yang berkaitan dengan our garden and gardening.

I guess sometimes I malas nak letak entries pasal what I cook for dinner sebab kadang2 I malas nak masak dinner so masak scrambled eggs and toasts aje or maggi goreng aje.

Tu yang nasib baik ada garden so bila I malas masak, boleh tayang gambar garden, hehehe.

And malam ni, I nak buat a special update on one aspect of gardening.

A blogger, AbbotCottage, asked if I can explain to her macam mana nak buat garden bed and the tanah used untuk buat garden bed ni.

We all ada 2 jenis garden beds like I’ve mentioned before, the no-dig garden beds and the normal raised garden beds.

The no-dig garden beds ni basically you can build anywhere, on any types of soil, or rocks or even concrete pavement like what we did. So, kalau rumah you all takde tanah tapi ada laman concrete, still boleh jugak tanam sayur.

If you want to read more about it, ini ada a few links, here, here and here.

The raised garden beds that we have are constructed on tanah. The vege patch yang besar was already here when we bought the house. Then we built another smaller one about a month ago.

And today we (as in The Other Half) built another one along another fence wall. But kali ni the area is much smaller than the second one.

This was what we used (you need) to build a raised garden bed.

1. An area to pun the garden bed.

Kecik aje area ni, about 1.5m X 0.5m. We all ingat cuma nak tanam the pak choys and the bok choys and kangkung kat sini. Vegetables yang takde akar tunjang yg besar.

2. Kayu kayan nak buat garden bed tu. We all guna treated pine palings and jarrah pegs. Make sure kayu yang you guna tu are treated so tak reput bila kena hujan and matahari and tak kena makan anai2.

And don’t forget the drill machine .

3. A good-looking man to build it for you while you just sit under the shade and sip icy coke, muahahahaha…

kalau the good-looking man nampak tension aje sebab the screw he used was not drilling correctly, make sure you bagi kata kata perangsang kat tepi tu instead of just sipping icy coke, heeee….

Or you can always bawakkan a glass of icy coke for him to drink sebab tengah2 panas kena buat garden bed kan, hehehehe….

(kalau you all nak hire my man ni boleh aje but labour cost dia sangat lah mahal nya mah, hikhikhik….)

Once it’s done, make sure the good-looking man carries the newly built garden bed to the right place and set it in place nicely.

Set it at the right place and then hammer the jarrah pegs into the ground.

Until the pine paling sits nicely on the ground without any gap.

(sebab this vege bed sangat kecik and rendah, we didn’t bother to put another pine paling on the 4th side yang against the wall tu. Kalau your garden bed besar and tinggi lagi, kenalah letak the wood on the other side as well to avoid the soil causing a lot of pressure on the wall.)

4. The things that go into the bed

The first layer is compost. Selalunya we all guna our own home-made compost tapi we’ve just used our compost the other day so yang dalam compost bin tu tak ready lagi. Kenalah beli compost at the shop.

In goes the first layer.

The second layer is the potting mix. Potting mix ni dah ada wetting agent in it, a bit of fertiliser, tanah.

My tugas cuma meratakan the layers aje .

Make sure you ratakan the mix nicely.

If you takde potting mix, cuma ada tanah aje, after you dah tabur the tanah, boleh lah tabur some fertilisers on it atau Dynamic Lifter to give your soil the extra boost. Kalau takde, just baja tahi ayam pun boleh, hehehe.

Then add the third layer which is mulch. Mulch ni tugas dia untuk retain moisture, keep the weeds from popping up and keeping the soil a bit cool. Mulch ni boleh dapat from many sources. Yang we all guna is from sugar cane. You can use shredded barks, straw/hay, shredded newspaper, grass clippings.

After the mulch has been spread evenly, you can water the garden bed. The Other Half put a bit of fertiliser in the water so it will make the garden bed extra ‘juicy’ for the seedlings .

Then let the garden bed settles down a bit for about a week before you plant anything. But don’t let it get too dry in the meantime though.

So, this is how we built our garden beds. Lain orang maybe lain cara dia but so far this seems to work for us.

And before I lupa, this is the flower (from the previous update) on its plant.

It’s the flower of the mint herbs. Cantik kan rupa dia .